Lok Sabha elections 2024 | Raj Thackeray’s political pivot: MNS-BJP alliance on cards

MNS chief Raj Thackeray. Pic/X

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is most likely to join hands with the BJP-led pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha elections. Raj Thackeray left for New Delhi on Monday evening, purportedly to meet the BJP high command.

In the national capital, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule had reached the party headquarters for a meeting with the core committee of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the party's national president JP Nadda. Sources said Thackeray had visited Delhi earlier, too. In Mumbai, the MNS chief was visited recently by senior BJP leaders. MNS could be given a couple of seats to contest, including Mumbai South. MNS leader Avinash Jadhav told a news channel that in addition to Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Thane would also be discussed.

In sixteen years of its existence, the MNS performed well only once in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. Riding on a Marathi plank, it ate into the vote share of the undivided Shiv Sena in 2009 but did not win a single seat. However, it sent 13 MLAs to the Assembly the same year. But, the following elections saw the MNS fail miserably. It has only one MLA in the current House.

In the 2019 elections, Raj had targeted PM Modi and Amit Shah through a 'fact-check' campaign. BJP had devised a counter-campaign to check Raj who had no official candidate in the Lok Sabha fray and yet chose to hold independent rallies across the state. However, the campaign did not have any impact as the BJP-Sena alliance ended up winning 42 out of 48 seats.

If finalised, it will be the first-ever pre-poll alliance for the MNS that will come in handy to neutralise the Thackeray factor in the MVA. Recently, Raj took up the Hindutva agenda, in addition to his favourite sons of the soil issue. He has projected MNS as an alternative to cousin Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena that has gelled with the secular forces and is consistently accused of dropping the party founder Bal Thackeray's ideology.

While his party spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat welcomed Raj's visit to Delhi. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde lambasted Uddhav over the I.N.D.I.A bloc's meeting at Shivaji Park on Sunday. "Uddhav Thackeray should apologise to Balasaheb Thackeray. He sat with those who spoke against the Hindutva ideology. The meeting was held in front of Veer Savarkar's memorial and Balasaheb Thackeray's memorial. Those who used foul language against Veer Savarkar and made unfounded allegations against him had gathered at Shivaji Park. This is unfortunate," Shinde added.

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No. of MLAs MNS has